Rule number one when dealing with a duck is to get them accustomed to spending immediately. The moment they heard your voice, they owed you already. The energy, time, conversation, and disruption all cost.
He turned my way, leaning in.
“Talk to me. What’s on your mind? Is there anything I can help with?”
Got him.
“Just a lot, you know. Just a lot,” I sighed, closing my eyes for added effect. I shook my head from side to side.
“I’m listening. Lay it on me. You’re too pretty to be sad.”
“I wouldn’t mind telling you all about it but I’m overwhelmed already. Maybe another day.”
“How about you tell me all about that shit Sunday. Dinner. On me.”
I shook my head again.
“Rodney, my entire wardrobe was burned to shreds by another woman. One I didn’t know existed. One that’s the main reason I’m back home. Back in Dooley. Saga has been nice enough to lend me pieces. I don’t want to waste your time telling you I’ll be ready on Sunday at eight, because that’s highly unlikely.”
He leaned over, lifting his armrest and exposing stacks of twenties, neatly stuffed. He reached in and grabbed two, offering them to me.
“Rodney–” I sighed.
“Know that as long as you’re fucking with me, you won’t have to worry about shit. We’ll talk about whatever is bothering you over dinner and see how we can clear that shit up, ya feel me?”
“Yes.”
The exchange was smooth. From my hand to his.
Now, for my exit strat–
Just as the thought crossed my mind, I felt my body being lifted from the car. Baffled, I began swinging. The money slipped from my fingers. I grabbed for hair, clothes, ears, or anything that would leverage the disadvantage I was facing. I felt nothing.
I was moving rapidly. So was everything around me. As the realization that I wasn’t in a fight hit me, I settled down. My hands stopped flailing and my body relaxed against the familiar structure.
The thought of the two thousand dollars I’d left in Rodney’s car had me seeing red again. I launched a fist into Flocco’s back.
“Put me down!” I yelled. “Put me the fuck down!”
He did. We were no longer in front of the growing crowd. We were on the side of the yellow store, out of the public’s view.
“Why’d you do that?”
“You want me to bust your shit, Hyph?”
He was bluffing. Flocco wouldn’t lay a hand on me. He’d threatened me enough times to know.
“Fuck you!”
“You did that and that’s why I snatched your slimy ass up out of that whip.”
“If I’m so slimy then why the fuck are you still running behind me like a lost dog.”
“Cause that’s exactly what I am. And, I like my bone wet. Slimy. Coated in that shit that only you have.”
I lunged forward, ready to get as far from the nut case in front of me as I could. I’d robbed his ass in the middle of the night, yet here he was sniffing behind me like a stray.
My back hit the wall. Flocco refused to let me out of his sight.
